We’re officially stepping into building the best experience to make working social.
How will we do this?
- Boldly championing being a Groover as a way of life and as an identity.
- Building ways for Groovers to support each other inside the app beyond our 50-minute coworking sessions.
Journey over the past few months
If you want to read up on the evolution of Groove so far, check out this piece we wrote back in 2021 about building a new way to work and this one after our recent funding round in Fall 2022.
The short version of how Groove started is:
We loved the flexibility and freedom that came with carving our own career paths as freelancers, but missed the support of having coworkers…and needed to be around people who “got it” to thrive in our work.
So we asked ourselves, “what if we could replicate the feeling of being in a coffee shop or coworking space, but make it better?” Create a way to do it from anywhere, at any time.
In 2022, Groove became a powerful third space that users could access from the palm of their hand whenever they needed support to get something done or craved a bit of human connection. Groovers were building powerful friendships, showing up week after week, shipping projects, and attributing their accomplishments to Groove.
The magic Groovers were experiencing shifted us to actively grow and onboard new users. We experimented extensively and learned a ton, but something wasn’t clicking. People clearly loved Groove, but that wasn’t translating into growth.
We needed more information about what was and wasn’t working. So, we sent out a product-market fit survey.
Key learnings:
- Of the Groovers who responded, 95% of them said they would be disappointed if Groove disappeared tomorrow. 43% said they’d be very disappointed.
- People who love Groove love it because of the people they’ve met. That’s what they would be most sad to lose if Groove shut down tomorrow. And, that the quality of people was extremely important to them. Groove isn’t a place where you video chat and cowork with strangers, Groovers become friends. The relationships they built weren’t “transactional”, they were supportive, which felt very different from other ways they’ve connected online.
- It reinforced that the people who love Groove do work they care about and work that helps others. There were also interesting indicators about when in their life Groove was really great for them.
This all reinforced our belief that we have something really powerful here, different from anything else out there, but the path for how to grow sustainably was still a big question mark.
Ultimately, we realized we needed to take a step back and look back at the core product if Groove was going to succeed.
Refocusing on the heart of Groove
At the beginning of March 2023, we decided to get back to the heart of what we set out to build and what makes us different. We’ve reduced our team down to four — the three co-founders, Josh, Tova, and Sruli, and Taylor, our Head of Community, and got together in person with a pile of post-its.
We opened up our pitch deck from when we started Groove and read our original purpose together.
It’s hard to work alone. We could do it, heck we had been doing it. But, it’s better together. And, the last couple of years of conversations with Groovers had proved that. Reading this again, we agreed it still felt like us, except we learned the magic is that Groove isn’t at the heart of it, instead we added three words to better reflect what we know today.
“Groove helps people support each other living and working on their own terms — to build a better world with their unique talents.”
Whether it’s through joining an on-demand coworking sesh, sending a virtual high five to someone, attending our monthly goal planning party, or sharing a resource, Groovers support each other. Turning up the notch on how people could support each other beyond the 50-minute Groove coworking sessions became a theme of our conversations. How could we add powerful, purposeful social rituals into the app for daily support?
The magic of Groove is how easy and low lift it is to meet people like you, bump into them regularly, and build friendships with them as you cheer them on through structured rituals. We’re committed to honing in on this differentiator even more as we continue to build Groove.
Championing Groovers
A real shift that emerged from our time together is that we have a group of people here that Groove can really support. They’re proud to call themselves a Groover. Let’s champion them with all we’ve got and shout from the rooftops how much we care about supporting them and helping them support each other.
Groovers are people who…
- Made the brave decision to step out of the system. They’re doing things differently. They might be building their own business, freelancing, or starting a new project. But, at the end of the day, these are people doing work they care about.
- Have flexible schedules. They’re designing their lives. They’re not sitting in Zoom rooms all day. They value freedom.
- Get energized by other people. They’ve previously experienced the power of being in a great study group, cohort-based course, or straight-up body doubling. They know that being in great company helps them get shit done.
- Do all sorts of work—what bonds them is how they do it and that they care deeply about it. Plus, they’re authentic and bring their full selves to Groove. It’s normal to find Groovers describing themselves in bios as rollerskaters, guitarists, gardeners, etc. in addition to sharing what projects they’re building. Niche interests are much appreciated here.
We believe this is the future of the workforce. People weren’t meant to fix in boxes and neat job titles. And, social support should be accessible, possible, and powerful for those of us who are paving career paths on our own.
“Grown up social” and more asynchronous support
Groovers are busy humans, who care about how they spend their time and how they design their days. We believe their time should be spent doing things they love.
If we’re committed to building asynchronous social support for them inside the app, we must keep these interactions intentional, low lift, and empower them to be at the center supporting each other (not top down).
Groove should remind them of real-life socializing, which is why you won’t see us heading in the direction of building feeds, threads, or massive group chats anytime soon. No doomscrolling here!
Over the coming weeks, you will start to see features that deliver more value to you as a user… to-do lists, sharing goals & wins… ultimately creating more accountability and celebration beyond the 50-minute Grooves.
What’s next
We’re focused on making the core experience even better for the people loving Groove and getting value from it.
We believe Groovers are the fucking coolest and we want to do everything we can to help them help each other.
It’s brave to carve your own path and even though it’s a path on your own, it shouldn’t be done alone. We’ve seen the power of what Groove can do and the possibility of how it could help others.
If this sounds like you, become a Groover to join the others and be a part of this next generation of social.
Josh, Tova, Sruli & Taylor
